Interview with Deontay Wilder Part 2

A couple days ago in the 1st part of my interview with the WBC Heavyweight Champion, Deontay Wilder, he went over possible future opponents, the possibility of losing a purse bid to Alexander Povetkin, and dropping the belt, something he does not want to do. During this part of the interview, we go over his pick for the Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko, when he expects to be back in the ring, and his reasoning for why his fight vs. Povetkin should be at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Wilder’s thoughts on the rematch of Fury vs. Klitschko:

“Interesting fight. Did Klitschko have a bad night? He finally faced a bigger fighter and he’s got to get used to it. He wasn’t able to adjust like he wanted to because he’s so used to clinching and holding, but with a taller fighter it’s an awkward situation. But it’s like sparring, the more you spar with someone, the more used to get to it. So now he’s already been in there and he knows what to expect. What if Klitschko just can’t fight a tall fighter and father time is really at the door? Does Fury beat him again? It’s just interesting how the heavyweight division is turning out and I’m just happy to be part of it.”

Regarding his actual pick for the fight:

“I picked Fury for the 1st one. If Fury is really training hard like he supposed to, then he got a really good chance again. I want to say that my feeling on that is right, but you never know, anything can happen.”

Wilder said he loved fighting at the Barclays Center and enjoyed the atmosphere, which led him to talk about a particular person who may be very interested in where the fight takes place, Brooklyn Nets owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, who happens to be a very influential Russian businessman, who is worth 11 billion and has even finished 3rd in the presidential election.

Wilder’s statement regarding the Barclays as the preferred location of the Povetkin fight was:

“Yea, I would like it there, but this is my thing with Povetkin. One of the guys that supports him is one of the owners of the Nets (Mikhail Prokhorov). Why not have it at Barclays Center? You got a big Russian community. It just makes sense. You in New York, one of the guys is the owner of the Nets, that’s the reason you brought him out there, and you got a lot of Russians in New York. That’s another massive sellout fight. And now he makes his name in America, that’s how I see it.”

Wilder continued to speak on Povetkin and fighting in Russia saying:

“They want to drag everybody to Russia, knowing that there won’t be anyone but Russians there. That don’t intimidate me. I’ve been to Russian before. I already know how it is. At the Olympic trials when I fought over there, I beat the gold medalist (Rakhim Chakhiyev), and that atmosphere didn’t bother me at all. When I’m in the ring I don’t hear anyone at all anyway.

So if that’s their strategy, to try to intimidate me, that’s not going to work, not going to work at all. So they might as well come over to the sweet, sweet US of A, where it’s the land of opportunity, and get your ass whooping, but you’ll at least get your name out there.”

Deontay Wilder probably has the biggest star potential on the entire PBC roster. He’s an American heavyweight champion that knocks everyone out, he’s undefeated, he has a great, outgoing personality, with good mic skills, and he has started to break into casual boxing fan’s scenes at places like at WWE wrestling events and the Superbowl. He appears to be on the verge of breaking out and being the star that PBC appears to be looking for.

The only thing left for Wilder to zoom up the charts is a few wins over top 10 heavyweights. Wilder already has a good win over Bermane Stiverne, so with a possible win over Alexander Povetkin, followed up by heavyweight unification fight with Tyson Fury, it could do just that. It’s still a long way, and a lot to be done, before that can all happen, but I suggest paying attention to the 6’7 man from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, because if things go well, he could be the next superstar of the sport of boxing.

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Works have appeared and featured in places such as Forbes, Huffington Post, ESPN and NBC Sports to name a few. Follow me on Twitter at @RobCobb_INSC, email me at [email protected]